Dimension 3842
by T02E
Summary: IDTF activity in alternate dimension: 384.2 as recalled by SOK Operative T02E. Summary: The masters of the Jade Palace are awoken one night by the IDTF, a team of warriors tasked with killing demons. This may be a large leap for the masters, but there are darker forces at hand, that even the IDTF know nothing about... And, yeah, there's meant to be a point in the title :p
1. Prologue

**Dimension - 384.2**

**Local time: Unknown - 02:59**

It was raining.  
The rooftops were soaked in the downpour, but still, the silhouette showed no signs of slipping. Each footstep made little noise, inaudible against the pattering of raindrops that fell like all the souls the figure had seen pass. As they reached the ground, each droplet shattered, an inevitable end.  
T01E pulled the handgun from his side. He was alone, for now. The HCHR "Concussor" rested firmly in his grasp, an armoured finger resting lightly on the trigger. He wouldn't have to use it now. Besides, gunfire was out of the question at the moment, unless absolutely necessary; hundreds resided in the buildings below him, and waking them would be unwise, to say the least.  
Three targets roughly 2 meters below. A throwing knife for the first, and his SHAFT blades for the others. He jumped down on them, and all three were dropped in less than a second. The Sun still had yet to rise, and the large building on the horizon - his destination - was still shrouded in darkness and cloud. The SOK operative picked up his knife from the ground, there was no trace left of the demonic forms that he had just vanquished, disintegration was useful in that sense.  
T01E dropped down to the streets, rolling as he hit the ground. He stayed crouched beneath window level as he made his way through the winding path, eventually finding himself out of the solid mass of building. He decided to scale the mountainside instead of taking the stairs. Even at this time of early morning, stealth was still a lot to worry about.  
Although a CHL would have made the journey faster, the mountain proved no difficulty. It took less than a minute to reach the top, a seemingly unrealistic time.  
As he walked slowly to the wall, he could hear low vibrations from behind it. Someone was asleep then. Noisily asleep. Fine. This was a slightly unexpected occurrence, but nothing that should really impede him.  
Ahead of him, three figures gathered at one of the walls, plates of armour glinting ever so slightly in a passing phase of moonlight.  
It was time.


	2. 1

**Dimension - 384.2**  
**Local time: Unknown - 03:03 **

The TBSs were already primed by the time T01E had arrived. They were professionals, after all. Despite the IDTF being formed relatively recently, they all had their fair share of experience.  
In front of T01E were the operatives I07E, B34E and T02E (which is me, if you didn't notice). I had been involved in very few well known incidents, but that wasn't really my way, nor was it the way of any of the IDTF. Myself and T01E, or 02 and 01, as we were more commonly known, were the founders of the IDTF, the task force that was specialised in dealings outside of the Origin dimension. We were the two snipers of the group, although close range dealings were hardly something we couldn't handle.  
I carried a T1000, a high-power semi-automatic sniper rifle, two prototype RV8s at my sides and an R-Sabre on the right of my back.  
01 was using his usual, custom built Lacerator bolt-action rifle, a prototype Firebolt A2 and a HCHR "Concussor".  
I07E, or "Inferno", was one of the two fire specialists on our team. He liked to think of himself as a "tank", as it were, and carried a Firebolt LMG with a large drum magazine, with a TC Flamethrower on his lower back.  
B34E, or "Blaze", was the other fire specialist. Their codenames are oddly fitting, don't you think? She carried a TC flamethrower as well, but for now she held a HCCSMG, with a reflex sight clipped firmly on the sub-machinegun's tactical rail.  
"TBSs primed, ready to breach." Blaze announced with a whisper.  
"When you're ready." Another voice buzzed in our helmets, "We'll drop in when you give the word."  
Organised, the voices buzzed on, each relaying information as the breach was organised. Inferno handed out suppressors to the other three.  
"Scanning."  
"Guns cocked, loaded and ready."  
"Suppressors on. Stun ammunition on standby."  
"Be advised, I count total 22 hostiles, 7 ULFs."  
ULF stood for Unaware Life Form, which was the general term used for anyone who didn't know we existed. The general intention was that ULFs be kept as ULFs, because when they aren't it tends to cause problems, although luckily most incidences to date have been contained. Usually with incapacitation.  
"Stand ready, breaching in five, suppressing..."  
Silence for five seconds.  
A dull thud could be heard as the TBSs did their work. No matter how sensitive the hearing of some of the inhabitants of this world may have been, they wouldn't hear a thing if they were asleep, which people generally were at 3AM.  
01 stood to the side, telekinetically lowering the separated piece of wall as Blaze moved in. I was crouched aiming at the breached area, and Inferno stood behind me doing the same.  
Blaze snapped to her left and let off a burst of suppressed gunfire.  
"Two down." she announced. The rest of us moved into the building. The ceiling loomed high above us, and various weapons, armour and such were on display at various points in the room. One point mysteriously appeared to be holding nothing at all. There were columns all around, and a pool and some candles near us. On the other side of the room, large wooden gates signified the regular entrance.  
More information was relayed to us.  
"I've spotted a reaper outside on your 4, coming up to the entry point on your 6, you might want to take him out."  
I turned around to face the opposite direction and levelled my rifle. As the reaper turned the corner I fired a shot into its forehead.  
"Reaper down." I said.  
"Good kill, good kill."  
We advanced, manoeuvring around the pool and cautiously exiting via the wooden gate-doors. To our left and right were two other buildings.  
"I've spo- he's down. 01 got him. Remember, just say when we can do something, getting a little bored here."  
"Patience is a virtue." Inferno noted. "You don't care much for virtues, do you, White?"  
White laughed, "No, not really."  
Blaze scolded the two, "Do you even know the meaning of the word "stealth"?"  
"Only about as much as I care for virtues." White replied slyly. Blaze sighed in exasperation. "Besides, there's a reason these helmets only let us communicate with our team."  
"They don't do that!" Blaze hissed, "They've never done that!" She sighed again and focused back on the task at hand. "I can hear a couple of reapers to the side of the building on the left, and what sounds like an MD inside of it, if anyone wants to take them out. Can anyone confirm?"  
The reply came quickly. "Scanning... yep, just as you said, good call."  
"01 and I'll take care of them." I announced, "Move up."  
Blaze took the quick advance to the right, and Inferno followed more slowly behind. There were certain disadvantages to an LMG. 01 and I moved through to the left. He advanced on the two reapers who had their backs to us, his SHAFT blades at the ready, whilst I put away my T1000 and lifted the R-Sabre from my back.  
"OK, 02, that MD is looking right at the doorway. If you're going to do anything, do it quick... or slow, slow might work too."  
I sighed at the indecisive advice and moved in. The R-Sabre, although a little unconventional, is a formidable close-quarters weapon. With both a solid structure and, when it's on, a constant covering of energy supplied to the outside, it has the ability to cut through almost anything. So, yeah, It can be useful.  
I turned the corner and rushed at the demon, going for the neck so little sound would be made. As I thrust the sabre into the unsuspecting demon, I was aware of more information being relayed to me. This time, it was not the usual calm relay. This was frantic, and it was trying to warn me.  
"02, there's a ULF coming right now, and it's coming fast!"  
"You could give me an earlier warning-" I was cut off as I turned around - I had been disarmed, the R-Sabre in my hand knocked away from me.  
I reached for an RV8 at my side, but even faster than the ULF, something else came in from the side, knocking it away from me and into the wall to my right. I still pulled out the RV8 in case it was a demon, but instead it was 01 I found, pinning what looked like a tiger to the wall. He had one hand clasped around the creature's neck, and the other was held to his side, telekinetically pinning the four other limbs.  
"Guys, you may want to get in here..." I warned the others. It was then I noticed six other ULFs on the other side of the room. I levelled my handgun, and unfortunately they looked ready to fight. They were hesitant, however, and I could guess why; 01 still held the first ULF in place, and was now staring at the other six. The first ULF, the tiger, also seemed to be staring in the six's direction. The creature's eyes were wide, using defiance to shadow the panic inside.  
Although, to be honest, I'd figured that out, so it didn't shadow it very well at all, really.  
"O...K..." I addressed the ULFs. They looked at me, surprised, probably due to the relative casualness of what I was saying, and - probably - that I hadn't made any demands of treasure, or something. "...This probably won't end well."  
The six seemed curious, and somewhat understanding. It appeared we had a mutual feeling of dislike for this standoff.  
The blobbiest of the six seemed to whisper something about "thunder" to another, and I didn't quite catch the reply. I was still aware of buzzing in my helmet, but the situation had taken over my concentration. I wasn't quite up to multitasking as I usually am, probably due to our last operation in dimension 244.4, which involved transformation. I don't know if you've ever been transformed, but it isn't that great, especially if you aren't too fond of what you're transforming in to. That same operation was probably also the reason for 01's increased tendencies towards magic, but now I'm just rambling. Back to story now.  
"So what's going to happen now?"  
It was a short ULF, a red panda, from the looks of it, who answered me:  
"Simple. You will release Tigress, then-"  
"-YOU WILL FEEL THA-"  
"-Shush, Po. That will hopefully not be necessary."  
I had originally planned to mentally refer to "Po" as "The Blob", for my own amusement for a while, but that plan turned out finishing before it started. I liked to give ULFs random nicknames once in a while. I regarded him quizzically as he reluctantly withdrew from his exaggerated fighting pose and returned to his slightly less exaggerated defensive stance. This looked to be a strange dimension indeed.  
The strangeness, however, turned shortly to seriousness as Blaze and Inferno entered the same way 01 and I had came, and our three other teammates burst through the ceiling on the other side of the ULFs.  
They were W41E, B42E and R43E - White, Blue and Red. They all looked vaguely similar, with the dominant colour on all of their suits of armour being white, and also both Red and Blue carried Mage Carbines, but they had their differences too. They had different coloured armour plating around their shoulders, knees, parts of their helmets and around their waists, and so on. White's was a dark-ish shade of grey, and Red's and Blue's was, well, red and blue.  
The three also carried different weapons, besides the Mage Carbines Red and Blue had. Red carried two LRER Micros, easily-reloadable machine pistols. Blue carried a hefty RailGun on his back, which meant he could be a sniper at times if need be, although it was really just for precision targeting of particularly tough demons, or enemy-occupied vehicles, if we were having a really bad day. It slightly reflects White's personality that he chooses to carry a JAMB with him. The manufacturers of the JAMB surely had a vague sense of humour, as it stands for: Just A Massive Bazooka, and that's pretty much what it is. It uses single missile loading, deals a decent amount of damage, and is pretty light, actually, making it quite a popular weapon for explosive-lovers. He also mainly used a C12 Battle Rifle Prototype, which was a kind of assault rifle/LMG hybrid.  
I called out to the five teammates who had joined me.  
"Alright, guys, hold your fire. We can settle this."  
Red was the first to react "Settle wha-? Oooh... This..."  
"Dammit 02... Again?" White complained.  
"Yeah, again, what's the problem?"  
"Doesn't this usually end badly?"  
"No, it usually starts off a little awkwardly then ends up helping us out eventually. Except in Origin, but I always thought those humans were a little cranky anyways..."  
The red panda cleared his throat.  
"I had assumed you were going to release Tigress."  
I turned to him, "Right, yeah, the standoff. 01, I think you'd better let her go."  
I turned to look at him, but 01 made no effort to move. He was now staring at the tigress before him with both curiosity and hostility. I had a bad feeling about this.  
"01... Let her go."  
01 turned to me, expressionless, then back to the tigress. Cautiously, he released his hold.  
The tigress wasted no time. The very second she was released, she launched a magnificent flurry of attacks at my teammate's legs, chest and head. Punching and kicking, each blow was flung and directed perfectly.  
And yet, somehow, 01 could block them.  
Sure, 01 was an incredible marksman, that was clear enough in the thousand or so years I'd worked with him, but still, he'd never really bothered with hand-to-hand combat when I'd been there. Of course, every SOK had to be pretty decent at it, but this was something else. Everyone else stood aside, and either watched on, stupefied, or tried to dissuade one of the combatants. In most other situations I would've shot the ULF immediately, but that, for obvious reasons, wouldn't be a good idea. Shooting someone in a standoff situation can't end well. I didn't bother telling 01 to stop; he was on the defensive, and at this point hadn't really done anything wrong. The small ULF, however, did try and stop the attacker.  
"Tigress!" he shouted. The tigress wasn't at all fazed by the red panda, and pressed on, pushing 01 back. She was almost frantic now, and in a last-ditch effort to break 01's defence, picked up my R-Sabre from where it had landed on the ground and raised it above her head.  
This wasn't good.


	3. Chapter 2 even though it's chapter 3

**AN: Just fixed a little problem, in the previous two chapters the text was a bit blocky, it should be sorted in this chapter. The copying and pasting in sort of messed it up, I've had to delete and re-enter every carriage return, which seems a little unnecessary, but never mind.**

**Also, first AN :D**

* * *

**Dimension - 384.2**

**Local time: Unknown - 03:12**

Energy coursed up 01's arm, flowing on and above his hand, crystallising into brilliant blade of energy. The R-Sabre, now in the tigress' possession, didn't hit 01, but instead hit the blade formed on his arm. The blade shattered on impact, sending disintegrating shards of energy outwards, dissipating to nothing. The impact also flung my sabre out of the tigress' arms, and into the wall beside me. Convenient. I plucked it out and shouldered the weapon.

"Tigress!" the small red panda said again. The tigress noticed this time, and after a short while of breathing heavily and glaring knives at 01 - who frankly couldn't care less - she turned and joined her comrades.

"That... Was... Awesome!" Po cried, as fanboyish as, well, a fanboy.

"02," Inferno spoke up, "I assume you wish these ULFs to remain unharmed?"

"Uh, I suppose."

"Then let us lower our weapons, there is no need for more fighting this day."

Slowly but surely, weapons were lowered, and eventually some were holstered. Stances became less aggressive, and eventually settled into relative comfort.  
After a short while of no-one saying anything, I chose to break the silence.

"So, what now?"

"I would suggest that you leave." the red panda answered me, dead-pan.

"Psshh, that's not happening any time soon, we have a job to do."

The red panda raised an eyebrow. "A job?"

"Tell you what," I suggested, "how about we deal with the "problems" here for now, then we'll talk. Explain some stuff."

As if to prove a point, Inferno turned and let off a burst of fire.

"One more down." he said. The seven ULFs turned to each other and almost formed a huddle. They conferred in hushed tones, with the occasional raised voice from someone who either wanted to get a point across, wasn't happy with a point that had just been made, or both. Eventually, it seemed they had come to a decision.

"Alright. We will allow you to do your "job"..."

A good start, but I could sense a "but" coming.

"But," there it was. "first, we will be needing introductions."

Oh. That was fair enough, relatively easy.

"Alright then. I'm 02, this is Blaze, Inferno, Blue, White, Red and 01." I gestured to each of my teammates in turn, and they each gave their own personal "hello". A "Hey", from White, a "Greetings", from Inferno and a blank stare from 01, ever the people-person. I waited for the ULFs to introduce themselves, but they said nothing.

"So, are you going to... Introduce yourselves?"

"Will it be necessary?"

"Probably, and it'd be nice, too."

The red panda muttered something under his breath, then gave in, and the seven introduced themselves to us.

They were Master Shifu, Po the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five, who consisted of: Master Monkey, Master Mantis, Master Crane, Master Viper and Master Tigress. For each introduction, there was a flourish of Kung-Fu, which annoyed me a bit. They didn't see us blowing holes in their walls to show off our skills. White also took on quite a sarcastic approach, although that was generally just him.

"I sense great creativity in your titles..." he said mystically, "They truly deserve awards. Give those five medals!"

"White," Red said false-sweetly.

"Yeah?"

"Please stop talking, or I might just ram your missile launcher down your-"

"-That's... enough of that, Red." Blue interrupted her.

White was visibly scared.

"I'm scared." he said.

The red panda, Shifu, cleared his throat once more, now quite highly strung. "Your job?"

That brought us back to business. "Right." I said, "Red, stop threatening to ram things down places, and White, stop being generally annoying." White looked offended, but no-one cared. "Blue, can I get a recount on the remaining hostiles?"

"Sure thing."

"And you," I gestured to the tigress, "I don't want you attacking any of us."

Tigress' mouth twitched upwards in a small smirk. "I'll try not to."

"Good. You done, Blue?"

"Just about. 14 hostiles remaining."

"Great. Now let's do our job." I turned to Shifu as the seven of us left, "And we might also fix the ceiling." The red panda looked up at the rather large hole. "Might."

We finished the rest of the individual job pretty easily, probably since we no longer had to worry about the resident ULFs. No-one was harmed - although with a job like this I'd be surprised if anyone was - besides, of course, demons, all of which were harmed.

"That went well." White noted.

"That went terribly, White. We alerted everyone." Blaze disagreed.

"Your face went terribly."

"I don't even have a face, White."

"Your face doesn't have a face."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Your face doesn't make any sense."

Blaze sighed, or maybe it was more of a growl. There was silence for a while before White concluded:

"Right, I reckon I won that one."

"AARGH! Will you just SHUT UP?!"

"Will your face shut up."

"I'm gonna MURDER you!"

"I'm gonna murder your-"

The conversation was ended with a shot from 01's Lacerator.

"THANK you." Blaze exhaled, and 01 gave a curt nod in response. Blue simply sighed and picked up White's unconscious form. Believe it or not, this wasn't actually the worst argument our team has had, in fact it was pretty routine, if a little bit over the top. The arguments we had were almost always between White and Blaze, due to White's tendency to annoy people and Blaze's hot temper (you see what I did there?). There were occasionally arguments between some of the other members, but most of the time we all got along pretty well.

Returning, we received a few looks from the 6 ULFs before us (Shifu had probably gone off to do... Something. Yeah, pretty sure that's exactly what he was doing.).

It was Mantis who actually spoke.

"Will he be needing any... Medical attention?"

I turned to Blue, who was still carrying White.

"Who, White? No, he'll be back up in an hour or so. If anything, Blue's more likely to be needing medical attention."

"Amen to that." Blue agreed, slowly setting White down against a paper wall. "Why do I have to carry him, anyway?"

"What happened?" Tigress asked out of curiosity, not concern.

"He started an argument with me." Blaze answered, "01 stunned him to shut him up." I didn't bother to tell her that she'd technically started the argument, and it was just White who'd made it ridiculously childish.

"Wouldn't that harm him at all?" Viper this time, though she actually seemed concerned. I answered her.

"No, our stun weaponry causes no permanent damage to any life form. Of course, it'll kill demons, but technically they're animated, not alive. Basically, it renders people unconscious, nothing else."

Mantis laughed, "That's good to know."

"Oh, no, we're not going to be using them on you, don't worry. Well, not unless you give us a reason to, anyway. Besides, we're in a truce-y situation here."

Crane spoke next. "Sooo... What exactly are you here to do, then?"

"Well..." I decided after a while to just give it to them straight. "We're highly-trained warriors from another dimension who've come to stop our also dimension-travelling demonic enemies."

Crane paused for a while. "... Right. Well, that's a new one on me."

"Oh, yeah, and not forgetting Fear."

"What?" Most of the others asked, including some of my team.

"God of Fear, classy guy, but you never know what he could be up to. If we didn't keep tabs on him, he could well have screwed up... Everything. Let's say everything."

White regained consciousness and got up. Thinking back on it, it's kind of odd that no-one really made anything of it. Most of the ULFs seemed to be wondering if I was insane, though considering how our team looked I wouldn't expect them to think I was lying. The only ULF who didn't seem to be contemplating my insanity was Po, who instead thought what I was saying was awesome.

"Let's go stop him then!" Po said suddenly, "Me and the Five will take him down!"

This amused my team, although Po's enthusiasm was refreshing.

"You know he said God of Fear, right?" Blaze reminded him, sceptically.

"Yeah, but I don't care, we could take him."

"Uh, yeah, no offense, but you guys wouldn't even get near him." Blue said.

"Oh, really?" Tigress raised an eyebrow, "If you can manage to keep tabs on him, I know we can bring him down-"

"Excuse me," I interrupted, "you have no right to criticise our fighting, you only got lucky that you managed to disarm me for a second. Besides, we could down you all in less than that if we wanted to right now."

She got into a fighting stance. "Go on then. "Down" us."

I shook my head. "You know we're not going to do that." White lowered his rifle with a disappointed "Aww...", "Anyway, how the hell did you know I was there? We couldn't have woken anyone with that level of noise."

Tigress humphed (that a word?) "I wasn't asleep."

"That explains that then..." I muttered. "Anyway, we'll probably be going out on individual missions every time something comes up, all the while looking for Fear. I reckon we could be in this dimension for a while."

I sensed a few suppressed groans amongst both groups.

"Does that mean you'll need a place to stay?" Viper asked. I could tell it was an offer of hospitality, although I doubt she'd discussed it with the others beforehand. I reckoned it would be best not to jump at the proposal straight away.

"Probably. Well, I can see you're no strangers to fighting, so it might be a good idea if we taught you guys how to fight demons. Could save us a trip or two in the future if they ever decide to come here again."

Viper turned to look at her comrades. Crane looked a little uneasy, and Tigress reluctant for sure, but perhaps they could be swayed, Crane probably a little easier than Tigress. Monkey and Mantis both seemed pretty impartial, and Po seemed rather excited, which was reassuring on my team's part. I guess the real decision, if it was to be made, would be made by Shifu more than anyone, which didn't give me an incredible amount of confidence, considering that we were hardly on friendly terms, and he was probably still mad at us for breaking his ceiling. The Five knew it wasn't their decision to make, not here and now, at least. Because nothing had really been said on the subject, the conversation moved on. Or, it was about to, at least, before Shifu returned.

"Alright," he said, massaging his temples, "it's getting late - well, early - and we have training tomorrow, students."

He raised his head, which had previously been pointed slightly downwards. His voice took on a more official tone as he spoke again, this time to my team.

"As for you seven, you will also be staying here, where we can keep an eye on you."

Tigress protested, "But, Master-"

"I will have no objections, Tigress. I have consulted-" It seemed as though he was about to say something, but instead caught himself. "I have consulted someone on this subject, and my decision has been made. Now, as our guests seem to have made no real move to kill us-"

"Totally true." I interjected.

"-I suggest we restart as if this whole situation had never happened." He frowned slightly, "Besides the ceiling, of course, which you will be fixing."

I sensed various winces and groans from my team, but I continued on. This was turning out easier than expected, although I doubted that we would carry on as if this had never happened.

And no, I'm not just talking about the ceiling.

Never the less, I carried on, in some kind of odd... Thing. It's that odd that I've been forced into calling it a "thing".

"Greetings... Masters...? Is that it?"

"Get on with it." Tigress ordered.

"Alrighty, uh... We are... Specialist... People?"

I heard the distinctive thud of gauntlet meeting helmet. Clearly Blaze thought I was really bad at this, and - rather depressingly - I suppose I had to agree.

"What happened to what you said before?" Red asked me.

"What did I say before? Should I say it again?"

Blaze let out a sigh and stepped forward. "Look, you guys know the deal, can we just get done with this and wait 'till morning?"

Shifu seemed a little irritated, but ultimately relieved. "Close enough." he said, "Your quarters are in the building just around from this one, mirroring it. Now let's all just get some sleep."

He was about to walk past us when Blue said quietly, "We don't... Sleep."

Shifu stopped slightly, then simply said, "Then wait." and passed us, exiting the way he had came. The Five and Po turned, returning to their quarters too, hoping to get what sleep they could from what little was left of the night.

We decided it was time for us to go, too, and turned in the opposite direction. Red was reminding Blue that she actually did sleep, and enjoyed it. Blaze was talking with White about Po, Shifu and the Five; neither of the two held a grudge about any of the arguments they ever had, that is, until they were engaged in another. Inferno seemed to be going over something within his helmet, so I was left with 01.

As we entered the guest quarters, I noticed how similar it was to that of the Five and Po. When Shifu had said it mirrored it, he hadn't just meant in positioning. A corridor stretched down the middle, with individual rooms branching off to the left and right, separated by paper doors. We decided that 01 and I would share a room, and Red and Blue would share another. The remaining room would later probably be converted into a make-shift armoury.

As 01 and I moved into our given room, I decided to question him on what had happened in our standoff against the ULFs.

"What was that back there? I didn't know you could fight like that."

01 simply nodded. You can't really get a good, complex answer out of a mute. Luckily for me, though, I was one of the few people that 01 chose not to ignore, so there would usually be some kind of acknowledgement, at least. "Yes or no" questions were generally the way to go with 01. Nodding and shaking his head were the general forms of communication he used, although he generally points his gun at whoever's annoying him.

"And by the way, why were you staring at Tigress like that, just before you released her? Was there something wrong?"

01 nodded again.  
"What was it? Could you tell she was going to attack you?"

01 nodded, but then waved a hand and shook his head. I guessed that meant that he could tell, but that wasn't the reason for staring at her beforehand.

"Right, right... Uh..."

A thought occurred to me, but it wasn't a nice one.

"Was it Fear?"

01 paused for a while. Then he nodded.


	4. 3

**AN: I've added a real summary now, hopefully that'll make more sense for people reading. Also, disclaimer, I guess. I don't own things that aren't mine!**

* * *

**Dimension - 384.2**

**Local time: Unknown - 5:59**

As the final few minutes closed before the Five, Po and Shifu would get up, my team gathered in the corridor. For the remainder of the early morning after my rather one-sided discussion with 01, I had decided mainly to tinker with my prototype revolvers. 01 had instead opted to train, and was absorbed into his own small reality dictated by his helmet. He shuffled around the room, firing off silent shots at invisible demons all around him.  
The others, as it had turned out, had either opted for the tinkering option, like me, or had found something to chat about. Despite the fact that most of us occupied our own personal room, paper walls are hardly soundproof.

As I tinkered, I'd had the time to mull over what 01 had suggested. Sure, he could be wrong, I suppose, but I've always known him to be right about things whenever he chose to express his views on them - which, believe me, is rare. I doubted, but hoped, that 01 was wrong somehow, because if he wasn't then the ULFs - and Tigress especially - could be a whole lot more involved in this than they thought they were.

It also occurred to me to think on Shifu's decision to let us stay, and what he had said. This "Someone" that Shifu had supposedly consulted must hold some kind of significance, considering that he wished to keep their identity a secret, and that they had managed to change his mind so quickly, and so assuredly.

Fear, this "Someone" - whatever was going on in this dimension, it was one hell of a lot more than a couple of demon outbreaks.

"Enjoy your sleep, Red?" White asked jokingly.

"Sleep does us good, White, and you know it. And for your information, it was nice: a good couple of hours where I could be completely unaware of your voice. Shame that had to end."

White pretended to recoil in shock. "That deeply offends me!"

"I offended White? Shocking."

"Shocking, like an electric eel!"

"Does that actually have anything to do with anything?" Blue asked.

"It has something to do with shocking... And electric eels."

It was then that the gong sounded, signalling that the others were going to wake up, and that soon we would probably have even more explaining to do. I had a different idea, though, as I wasn't too fond of massive monologues of explaining. I'd already done a load of that anyway.

"So, does that mean the others are getting up, or is there just something significant about eels?" White wondered aloud.

"Don't know, White, what do you think?" I asked, although I'd usually advise against asking White what he thinks.

"Well, I hope it's the eel thing, but I think, somewhere, deep down, I know that..."

"Exactly."

Anyway, the seven of us started down the corridor and exited the building. We walked into the courtyard, where the seven others had just arrived.  
"Morning, Masters. Uhh... Are we on bowing terms? You know, that fist-palm-bow thing? 'Cause that's not really our custom, and it'd really just be pretty awkward to-"

Shifu interrupted me. "You are within palace grounds, so you would do well to adopt the customs of the palace."

"That's racist." White muttered.

I turned to him in annoyance. "The hell, White?" White simply shrugged. "Alright guys, I want us all doing this. It's not fair on the rest of us if just one of us can't be bothered."

"White." Blue said quickly.

White turned to him. "Shut up."

And so we all bowed and greeted the Masters before us, besides 01. To be honest, I was hardly surprised. Tigress seemed to find this vaguely amusing.

"It seems as though just one of you can't be bothered." She said, arms crossed, mimicking my earlier statement.

"01 is an exception." I said, matter-of-factly, "Frankly, I'm surprised he's even looked at you."

"Surely," Shifu argued, "that is no excuse for such utter disrespect."

"On the surface, it's as though he does nothing outside of the battlefield. Besides, of course, preparing to go on the battlefield."

"Like Tigress." Monkey snickered, gaining a harsh look from the feline in question.

"It's just how he is." I finished. "And, Monkey, I'm not saying I know what Tigress is like, but 01 is far more extreme. Look at him! He doesn't even speak, either! On the surface, anyway, that's how he appears to others."

"That is still no excuse." Shifu insisted. "It is a matter of respect towards a fellow warrior-"

It was my turn to interrupt him. "Then he'll have to see you fight. I might do, but 01's not just going to take your word for it. Let's just let this slide, for now, alright? I'm sure we've got more important things to be seeing to."

Shifu looked about to argue, but hesitated, then eventually sighed. "You're right." he admitted, "Students, today you will each be teachers yourselves."

A flurry of "What?"s emanated from everyone but Shifu and 01.

"Wait, wait," Blue protested, "I thought we were going to teach you guys! You know, how to fight demons!"

Shifu smirked, "Yes, that time will come, but there was nothing said that meant _we_ couldn't teach _you_."

You know a while ago I said that this was easier than expected? Yeah, I was totally wrong.

"Everyone, to the training hall!"

"WOOOO!" Po screamed (I mean, who else is going to be screaming "WOOOO!"?) as the others walked off. "This is gonna be AWESOME!" It was then that he saw our nervous expressions. "Wait, don't you guys know Kung-Fu?"

White did the equivalent of a nervous gulp. "I know _of_ it." He said.

"Don't you guys ever use Kung-Fu?"

"Not particularly." I told him. "Every now and then we do things that are either similar or related to Kung-Fu. Generally we don't need to use hand-to-hand combat."

Po looked genuinely confused. "Why?"

In response I pulled out a Prototype RV8. "Haven't you noticed that we carry these kind of things around?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Po asked, tentatively prodding the revolver with a finger.

"Well, uh... Got anything you wouldn't mind having a hole in?"

"Uh..."

01 was clearly interested to some degree, as he tossed a pebble to me.

"Alright, never mind then." I said, catching the rather large pebble and showing it to Po. The panda said nothing, and seemed to bounce up and down slightly in anticipation. I threw the pebble directly up into the air, and as it reached its highest point I fired a shot at it. The pebble, instead of returning with a hole, was obliterated by the shot. Should've seen that one coming.

Po definitely bounced up and down now. "It's like a mini Shen Cannon!"

"Uh, I don't know what a Shen cannon is, but a mini cannon, yeah, essentially. Better, though. Loads better."

To my dismay, his enthusiasm evaporated. "So you guys have no need for Kung-Fu..."

"Untrue, actually." I said, hoping to reassure him. "We're all trained in it to some degree, it's just not our primary form of attack. Actually, a lot of lessons can be taken from Kung-Fu and used in combination with these. Dodging, for example, although you've got pretty much no chance of dodging shots from us, those who are lesser trained than us will have much more trouble hitting a moving target. Plus there's disarming enemies, and loads of demons will try to engage in hand-to-hand anyway. Kung-Fu, although it isn't really acknowledged, or really known as Kung-Fu, exactly, is still used a lot."

A minute ago I say I'm not fond of explaining, then there's that massive chunk up there. Total consistency. Mainly, I suppose, I just didn't want Po freaking out, which definitely wouldn't be good.

Thankfully, it seemed as though Po breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, though, Po's relief was interrupted by Shifu stepping out of the training hall, and shouting:

"What are you all still doing out here?"

"I believe what we're doing out here is being out here." was White's response.

Shifu's expression hardened. "In the training hall." He ordered, and we followed suit.

Finding ourselves in the training hall, we discovered there were enough training facilities for everyone, and more than enough ways to die through the use of them. Things rotating, swinging, spinning, breathing fire... My reaction was confined to my thoughts, but was roughly the same as White's:

"Ah, dammit."

"Now," Shifu gained all our attentions, "I've been advised to pair you all as follows, so listen up-"

"Who advised you?" I asked.

"... That is not important, neither is it any of your business." Shifu answered rather harshly. That only interested me more, no doubt Shifu had had further contact with the "Someone". He continued his announcement.

"Anyway, I have already seen that 01 is able, and also that he is unlikely to co-operate. Therefore, he may train in his own right while I oversee both him and the rest of you. Now, 02, you will be paired with Po,"

Po immediately began to rush over, before Shifu stopped him and told him to wait until he was finished.

"Monkey, you will be with White, Viper with Red, Crane with Blue, Mantis with Blaze and Tigress with Inferno. Pairings will switch depending on progress. Let training commence. I'll leave you all to get started, I'll be back soon to supervise."

And so, Shifu left the training hall. Inferno received a few sympathetic looks, but I reckoned he'd be fine. My team knew by now that Tigress was hardly welcoming us with open arms, but if anyone could gain her respect, and hopefully change her view on our team, it would be Inferno.

Inferno had a strong sense of respect, humility and comradery, and as they were both warriors that would probably play quite a key part. All Inferno really needed to do was convince he that, although we had broken into the Jade Palace, we had done it for good reason. Without that in the way, I would expect the two to get on quite well.

From what I had gathered on first impressions, it seemed we'd been paired fairly well, and I didn't really expect any problems. Blaze had been paired with Mantis, and although Blaze had a bit of a short fuse, she could still take a joke or two, as long as Mantis didn't cross the line. The thing with Blaze was to stay just behind the line, and if you did cross it you needed to apologise, and damn fast.

Blue was with Crane, which I thought ought to be fine. It seemed as though both were fairly mild-mannered, and perhaps a little intellectual. No problems from there, almost indefinitely.

Red was with Viper, and that seemed a good choice. Both caring, although Red was a little more selective of who she cared about. Viper seemed sort of motherly to some of the others, although I didn't know her age, whereas Red was one of the younger of our group, mentally, anyway. We've all lived so long we have a kind of fixed maturity.

White was with Monkey, and from what I could tell they were both jokers of sorts. There might be a bit of lethargy, and maybe even a few pranks to worry about, but overall no serious problems.

Lastly, I was with Po. I didn't particularly see anything in common that much between us, but he hadn't judged us from our break-in, and I had no quarrels with him. I couldn't see any reason for us to be anything but nice to each other.

The only real problem was that I didn't believe it would be necessary for our team to be taught anything. Also, despite the fact we had fixed maturity of sorts, we were all almost immeasurably older than any of the ULFs, and so it was kind of insulting our integrity for them to be teaching us about fighting, which we had all been doing thousands of years before they were even born. The thing was, though, I didn't want to offend anyone, and it would be terrible to shatter Po's excitement.

"This is gonna be so cool! Alright, first, I'm going to teach- no, wait, I'll show you round the- ah, but- Oh! I know! I'll see, uhh..."

"Po?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, uh, I'm not sure if you really need to-"

"Uh, guys?" It was Blue, mainly addressing me. Crane was behind him, with a face that asked the same question to Po. "Do you really know what we're meant to be doing?"

"Yeah, We don't know either." Viper admitted, who had come over with Red. "The others seem to be getting on with something."

It was true. 01 hadn't wasted any time, and had gone straight back to the same training he'd been doing earlier this morning. Blaze was watching as Mantis showed her one of the training areas, a forest of spiked, rotating poles. Monkey and White appeared to be in a frenzied sparring session, but I doubted either were trying, and even if they were, they were laughing too much to be able to concentrate for too long. Tigress and Inferno seemed to actually have quite some idea of what they were doing, and were going through some forms.

"Maybe we could do something together!" Po suggested, "Just because we've been paired up, that shouldn't mean we can't train as a group."

Crane nodded in agreement, "That seems good."

Blue wasn't entirely relieved. "Well, yeah, but what exactly can we do? I don't want to fight anyone here, especially not in hand-to-hand, and that fire field thing hardly looks inviting. Who's idea was this, anyway? It'd be one hell of a lot easier if we just taught you. Were practically in your custody!"

"Hey, come on, Blue, this isn't like you." I told him, concerned.

"...I know, it's just... Maybe White was right... How is this helping us out 02?"

"Well, it... Uh..." I'll be honest. I was lost for words. Blue was usually our source of intel on the field, and was often a voice of reason for us all. Maybe this wasn't helping us...

Luckily, Crane and Viper were there to reassure Blue, and to some extent, me.

"Hey, you don't have to fight us right away if you don't want to, there's loads more to Kung-Fu we can teach you." Crane said.

"And don't even worry about the fire thing." Viper assured us, "We definitely won't make you go through that if you don't want to."

"Hey!" Po complained, "I didn't get this treatment when I got here, how come they can stay off the training?"

"Po, do us three a favour and shut up." I told him, gesturing to Red, Blue and myself.

"Hey," Red suggested, "perhaps you could show us around, we don't really know what this place is, what you people do, the area around this place..."

"Yeah!" Po jumped at the suggestion, both metaphorically and literally, "We can show you around the palace, and the village, Oh! And you could meet my dad!"

Crane wasn't so sure, "I think we should probably be staying here, Shifu'll probably get mad if we leave. No showing around for now, that can wait 'till later." He turned to Red, "Sorry."

"What do you guys do to train anyway?" Viper asked us.

"My training was from experience on the field." I said.

Blue shrugged. "We usually don't train in Kung-Fu, anyway."

"Well... Perhaps we could actually show you around, just inside the training hall. And we could show you what it's all about, so maybe you'll be more comfortable in trying some of them. We can explain what we do along the way, too." Viper smiled at us.

I felt pretty reassured by Viper's suggestion "I can't see a problem with that. Blue?"

"Fine with me." He said.

"Good for me too." Red confirmed, "Shall we?"

And so Viper, Crane and Po took us around the training hall. They told us how they all protected the Valley of Peace, and China in general, all the while showing us the various training areas. Background information, stuff we needed to know, but you guys probably already do. As far as I know the movies that exist in Origin cover pretty much all you need to know, and all they told us. Po also included various stories and such from his and the Five's pasts, with sound effects and hand actions to boot. After a while, it seemed Blue was a little bit more comfortable than before with the idea of training, although he still wasn't too keen on the hand-to-hand business.

After a while we decided to leave the specific training areas for now, and instead do a few general things. We went through a few forms and stances for a while, with the three masters instructing, and after a while our group seemed to drift apart, back into the pairs we had originally been assigned to.

"So..." Po said after a while. "... Wanna spar?"

The question itself kind of shocked me, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

"Uhh... Ok, I suppose."

"Great!" Po exclaimed happily, "Hiyah!"

He struck a fighting pose. Slightly baffled by this, I settled into some kind of vague stance.

"Gods, this is ridiculous..." I muttered.

"What?"

"Never mind, let's... Just go."

Po lunged at me, with speed I wouldn't expect from someone so... Dumpy. I redirected his outstretched hand with my left, and countered with my right. Po saw my move, though, and grabbed my attacking hand, pulling me towards him and, more importantly, his belly. I twisted so my legs pointed towards him, so as his stomach seemed to extend towards me as if it were alive, my feet met it. Po wasn't fazed at all, probably because it was under his control, and natural cushioning, I guessed.

I, on the other hand, was flung some distance away from him. I slowed and steadied myself with my hands and feet, but by the time I had stopped moving Po was above me, a black-and-white, furry boulder coming to crush me.

I raised my hand, and a curved wall of energy stopped Po's progress. He bounced off, and rolled to a stop.

He sat up. "What the heck? No fair!"

"Was I not allowed to use magic?" Really, I'd known that, but the thought of being crushed under Po's weight was hardly appealing.

"Magic?" Po narrowed his eyes at me, "What number am I thinking of?"

I sighed, "Mind reading is advanced if people are trying to hide something, and petty and rude if not. Think of something else."

"Was this your card?"

"Wha- no, where'd you even get that card?"

"Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat?"

"Living things are tricky... I can do fire though. Fire's... _Like_ a rabbit."

"Oho hohohohoho..."

Po waited expectantly, and I conjured a little fire in my hand. He bounced up and down. "That's so cool... Can you do more fire?" He asked me.

I deadpanned. "This place is made of paper and wood, Po."

"Oh, right." he turned and raised his voice, "Guys! You have to see thi-"

He was interrupted as Shifu barged in through the doors and started barking at the Five.

"Bandits in the forest, approaching the village!"


	5. 4

**AN: Let me know if there's anything I should/shouldn't be doing with this thing. I mean, I'm doing this for my rather paranoid "Informant(s)", of course, but the view counter tells me other people are reading this, sooo... thanks for reading :)**

* * *

**Dimension - 384.2**

**Local time: Unknown - 08:24**

At Shifu's announcement, Po and the Five were instantly alert. Surprisingly enough, so was 01, who had immediately began loading his Lacerator in response.

The ULFs started towards the door, but soon halted. Tigress was the one to voice what a lot of them were probably thinking.

"What should we do with them?"

"We could come with you." I suggested, pulling my T1000 from over my shoulder and cocking the weapon. "It'd make things a lot easier for you."

"Yeah!" Po agreed, "Then we could show you around the valley, and then go back to my dad's for lunch!"

He seemed to go in to a little daze for a moment after that. I got the impression that lunch was one of his favourite things, along with breakfast, dinner and snacks.

"Hmmm..." Shifu stroked his beard in thought for a while. "...All right. After dealing with the bandits, you may escort our guests around the valley, then break for lunch."

This earned a fist-pump from Po, but Shifu continued.

"However, I expect you back here for training in four hours. I have been too lenient since the incident with Shen."

"Wait, so we'll be fighting ULFs, but without the need for stealth?" White asked.

"I'd guess so." I said.

"Aw, yeah. I'm so glad I brought an automatic."

"Hey." Tigress got our attention. "If you're coming with us, then follow."

The Five and Po burst out of the training hall with annoying speed, and shortly my group and I started running afterwards. White, as always, had some kind of comment to make.

"Gods, they're fast. We need a helicopter, can we have a helicopter?"

(By "helicopter", I mean our equivalent, which uses jets 'n' stuff, translation doesn't work out well, so for convenience it'll be called a helicopter.)

"We could teleport," Blue thought aloud, "If anyone's up to it."

I decided against it. "We wouldn't know where to teleport to. Just keep track of Po and the Five."

"Alright. Tracking, marker set... Applying to networked HUDs..."

We set off, running at a decent pace. We slid down the mountainside, grunting on impact with the ground, and soon found ourselves in the forest. Blaze decided to initiate a conversation, instead of what had previously been silence besides the patter of our boots on the earth.

"So, Inferno, how did training go with the scary one?"

"Who?"

"Tigress."

"Master Tigress does not strike fear in me, sister. We trained effectively."

"Do you have to call us by that?" Red asked him, bugged.

"We are all siblings." Inferno replied simply.

"Yeah, but you've got thousands of siblings, most of whom you don't even know. We're just friends, really."

"If you wish, I shall refrain from my use of sibling terminology."

"Guys," Blue alerted us, "We're closing in. Weapons ready."

A shot sounded from 01's rifle, and a figure dropped from the trees.

"Yep, definitely closing in."

We could hear the sounds of speech from somewhere nearby, in a clearing as it turned out. One voice came from a wolf whom I didn't recognise, demanding what that noise was. The other voice was Po's, stressing that he had no idea.

Blue surveyed the area, "In the clearing, 6 friendlies, 16 other ULFs: 15 likely hostile, armed with bows and swords. 1 likely hostage, unarmed." he paused for a moment, "Three likely hostiles in the trees."

"I'll deal with them." Blaze, who had kept her suppressor on, fired a few short bursts into the canopy.

"None in the trees." Blue said.

"And what was that?" The wolf was shocked now, and tightened his grip on his hostage. It was a sheep, and the wolf had a sword to its neck. "Show yourselves!"

"We might as well." I told my comrades, "This'll be fine."

It seemed my team agreed with me, and we moved out of the undergrowth towards the Five and Po.

"You," The wolf pointed to us, "Get over there." he pointed again to exactly where we were moving anyway, towards Po and the Five.

"What are you doing?" Tigress hissed at me.

"No talking!" The wolf ordered, "And don't come a step closer."

I smirked. "We'll be fine here."

I didn't need to tell my team to open fire with me. I quickly raised my rifle and fired a shot at the wolf, hitting him in his exposed shoulder. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. Most of my team had automatics, and, having chosen his handgun, 01's trigger finger was easily as fast as one, so shots went out rapidly, hitting their marks.

The 15 bandits were all on the floor in two seconds flat. The sheep, now surrounded by unconscious bodies, was a little dumbfounded, and so stayed still for a little while.

There was a moment of silence, before Monkey said, "...What?"

White pointed in the general direction of the unconscious bandits, "That."

I spoke up. "Alright, we're done. I don't know what you people want to do with those bandits, or that sheep over there."

The sheep seemed to jerk back to reality, and started speaking quite rapidly.

"Oh, uh, I was just collecting berries, and wild mushrooms, and a- a few- oh, and they came out of nowhere, they just- it was horrible!"

"It's okay." Tigress assured the frightened sheep, "I don't expect them to be coming out of anywhere for a long time."

The ewe then turned to my team and I, "And you, thank y- who...?"

"We're... Travelling warriors."

"We should probably introduce you guys to the valley if you're going to be staying here for a while." Crane put in, "Wouldn't want anyone freaking out."

The ewe continued, "I just wanted to thank you."

"You're welcome," I said, "but that's not really necessary, the Five and Po probably could've handled it." I wasn't entirely sure how true that was, but hey, why not?

"Do you live in the valley?" Viper asked the sheep.

"Yes. I... Can we go back now?"

It took a while before we actually went back, my team kept lookout for any stray bandits and/or demons whilst the masters took care of the unconscious bandits. After a few minutes, though, we had all started back to the village. On the way back, Po regaled us with his summary of the fight, ("Ha, don't move.. Noooo, they're too awesome...") with the usual hand actions and sound effects in abundance. Besides that, nothing much happened in the return trip, but it didn't take long for us to get back.

The sheep soon bid us farewell once we returned, returning to her home. Walking through the streets, my team and I received a few odd glances from the civilians around us, but Po and the Five quickly took care of most of that with the simple mention that we were "with them", which I was thankful for. Soon enough we reached a building with a kind of courtyard area, which the masters seemed to be heading towards.

"Po!" I heard a goose cry, before he ran out and latched on to the panda, "Good to see you, everything going well? Oh, and you brought your friends, I have lots to tell you, we have a new special- Oh!"

The rather energetic goose stopped for a moment to look at my team.

"Yeah, dad," Po began.

"Are these new friends of yours?"

"Uh, right, guys, this is my dad."

We introduced ourselves in turn, with 01 and myself being last.

"He's 01 and I'm 02. Nice to meet you, Mr...?"

"Ping." The smiling goose answered. "So, would you like a seat? Table for thirteen, I'll just move a few together, now- Oh, and don't forget, you all get my super duper warrior discount!"

"How much saving is that?"

"Oh, huge saving, you wouldn't believe if I told you, I'm practically giving it all away! *Aghem*, two percent off, *aghem*, sorry. Now, Po!"

The goose's speech became inaudible as he dragged Po over to the kitchen, and so my team was left with the Five, and sat down at the tables.

"That's his dad?" White said in disbelief.

Red sighed, "His foster parent, it's pretty obvious. Unless this dimension is really messed up..."

The silence after that was really an incredibly high level of awkward.

"So..." Viper said, trying to initiate conversation, "Do you guys... Like noodles?"

I shifted uncomfortably, "We, uh, don't usually eat... And we don't have taste buds."

"Oh. Well, at least Po isn't around, who knows how he'd react to that. Should we try and cancel the orders?"

"Oh, no, don't bother. I mean, we can eat, it's just that it's more like chucking food in a furnace."

I caught movement to my right side. 01 had tensed up and was staring across the table at Tigress, just like that first time back in the Jade Palace. Tigress had also noticed.

"What is he doing?" she asked.

"Hmmm..." I murmured, looking over at Tigress. I couldn't see anything amiss, and turned to 01, putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked at me, then back at Tigress again. I couldn't see it, but something was almost definitely up, and I don't just mean the sky.

Po broke the mood by returning with thirteen bowls of steaming noodle soup, balanced in positions that should probably be impossible. He began dishing them out.

"There we are. Right, eat up, Secret Ingredient Soup, hope you like it."

Mantis looked up from his bowl temporarily, "Who could _not_ like this?"

I raised a hand, "Uh... Never mind." then I let it fall again, picking up the bowl of soup whilst the other triggered the opening of my visor. I tilted my head back and poured the food in, before looking back down and seeing the slightly horrified faces of the Masters in front of me.

"Ah... You don't eat like that, do you?"

"Even Po doesn't eat like that... Usually."

Po protested a little, but didn't really deny it. Despite hearing the conversation, my team simply shrugged and did the same as me. It wasn't as if we spilled anything, anyway. 01, of course, was excluded from this (not that he'd spilled anything) because he'd ignored his soup and was carrying out maintenance on his Lacerator.

"Well, anyway," Po decided to initiate conversation, possibly to distract us from 01's bowl, which he was discreetly dragging towards him. "That was pretty amazing back in the woods, I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there."

Unfortunately, White spoke, "Oh, yeah, you would've been screwed, we- well, me, mainly- OW!"

White's head collided with the table in mysterious circumstances, not at all relating to Blaze.

"So." I put on an official-like tone of voice, "Are you guys, you know... Okay with us being here? I mean, I know that Shifu's kind of ordered you to be sort of hospitable, but... I want to know what you guys really think."

Viper smiled, "That's nice."

"And I want the truth, by the way."

"Sure!" Po said, "I think it's awesome you're here, and I don't know exactly what these demons are like, but I can't wait to deal them some justice!" This was a rough estimate of what he said, because his mouth was full with food at the time.

Mantis shrugged, "You guys seem nice enough. And if we are going to be fighting demons, at least it looks like we can leave things to you a bit if things go wrong. Or, uh, blame it on you, I guess!"

Crane spoke next, "I'm assuming you're here in response to demons already being here, am I right?"

I nodded.

"Then I'm glad you're here, otherwise we'd be facing them without you, which I'd guess isn't as good as facing them with you."

Monkey simply pointed at everyone else who'd just spoken, "What they said."

"Well," Viper said, as attention moved to her, "we haven't actually seen any of these demons yet, but I'm not really worried about it. I'm happy to have all of you staying here."

Attention then settled on Tigress, who said nothing for a while, still in thought. After a while, she spoke: "What you did in the forest was impressive."

She paused for a while, and it was another of those moments where I could sense the "but" approaching.

"But I still can't fully trust you. Not yet." She paused again, "We'll see, in time."

An eerie silence settled over our table, despite the large amount of background noise from the activity around us. Inferno broke the silence.

"I cannot blame you for not trusting us, Tigress. But the time approaches when your trust will be needed, and refusal will not be an option."

No-one else really had anything to say, until Tigress spoke again.

"Let's go," She said, rising from her chair, "Master Shifu will be waiting for us."

We got shown around town for a little while after that, mainly I suppose for us to get our bearings, and for the village to get used to seeing us. Taking the while that it did, we started making our way back about 3 hours, 35 minutes after we'd left. The way back was easy for the most part, but then we had the stairs.

"Uhh..." Blue began, "Should we just teleport up there?"

"We'd only end up waiting for them at the top if we did. Come on."

I gestured for my team to follow me, the Five and Po had already started upwards. Po was complaining pretty much the whole way, his feet hurt, his legs hurt, he hurt. General chit-chat something like that was generally all you could hear going up the stairs, so the journey wasn't silent, but nothing really worthwhile was said.

"Aagh..." Po panted as we neared the top, "Neeearly there..."

"Oh my Gods..." White exhaled, "The stairs end? I thought I'd never see the day, how do you people survive?"

Po laid down the second he reached the top, "Sometimes... I... Wish I... Didn't..." The panda was, although it seems surprising, in front. I assumed it would be just in case he passed out, in which case they'd need to stop his fall.

"Woah, Tigress!" Crane cried. I spun round, Crane had reacted with cat-like reflexes (which is kind of ironic), catching Tigress before she could fall.

Tigress had suddenly lost consciousness, which I guessed wasn't like her. This worried everyone present.

"What's going on?" almost everyone said something similar to that. Crane laid her down, and as I bent down to look I pushed her into the recovery position.

"Blue, you've got that scanny stuff, see what you can do."

Blue ran a quick check over the feline.

"Everything's in check." He said, "Heart rate slightly elevated, nothing wrong with her other than that."

The other masters, meanwhile, had been trying to wake Tigress. I had a bad feeling about this, though, especially as I remembered what 01 had suggested this morning.

Suddenly, Tigress jerked awake, and the masters around her recoiled, then settled into questioning; asking her if she was alright, what happened, etc.

"I'm fine, it-"

"Sorry, am I a little late?"

I turned at the voice. Standing just at the top of the steps now was a figure. He wore black shoes and black trousers, leading up to a black suit. He also had even a black shirt, black tie and black gloves. Beneath his top hat, his eyes and mouth were glowing, jagged, red lines, like a face you'd cut out of a Halloween pumpkin. In his right hand he held a cane, black, with red tips that mirrored his eyes. In his left he held a blood red pocket watch, and was regarding it nonchalantly.

His form as a whole seemed to cast unnaturally dark shadows, and due to the fact he was covered in clothing from the neck down, all you could see of him were his glowing eyes and maw. He wore a smile, but could not hide its insincerity, not that he tried to.

Fear had arrived.


	6. 6 is lies, it's chapter 5

**A/N**

**Alright, I haven't updated this in a while, I've been a little busy - you can probably guess why. Anyway, the outbreak in 384.2 isn't ****_entirely_**** solved, there are still a few isolated little pockets of demons that pop up here or there. Speaking of that, I'm still in here, and yeah, I have no idea how the hell I can get this here from... here. Dimensional divides are tricky little things.**

**Anyway, I've got a proposition for you guys: I'm thinking shenanigans. The work I've got here is nearly finished, and I want to have a little fun with this thing, so: If any of you have any ideas of how I can mess with the Masters or something, or maybe if you want to ask them any questions, I may well turn it into something, maybe a one-shot or something like that. Of course, it has to be something I'm actually capable of doing, and hopefully something that wouldn't provoke my murder (I'm talking mainly about Tigress here), but yeah. Leave a review or a PM or whatever and let me know.**

**Now, I've blathered on enough. Here's chapter 5.**

* * *

**Dimension - 384.2**

**Local time: Unknown - 12:17**

"I'm not sure what to be more insulted by, the instant assumption that I'm a threat, or that you seem to believe you could do something about it if I was."

All of my team had turned to Fear the second they'd heard his voice, drawing their weapons in the process. Po and the Five had adopted battle stances shortly afterwards, even Tigress, who appeared to be back up and running pretty quickly.

"Who are you?" Tigress demanded.

Fear began walking calmly towards us, "I, Tigress," He paused, for dramatic effect or something, "am Polzar, the embodiment of fear. Just call me "Fear", though, no-one uses my name. Keep in mind, I also settle for "Sir"."

"What were you doing to Tigress, Fear?" I asked him.

"Travelling from Origin to here. I find the conventional methods far less comfortable than going through a living vessel." He had reached us now, and was coming within dangerous proximity of Tigress.

"You're a troubled person, Tigress. All the better for me."

Tigress let out a low growl, then thrust her paws forward with incredible force. The force wasn't needed, however, they went straight through Fear as if there was nothing there, clouds of shadow seeping out from where Tigress' paws were stuck, in the hole in Fear's stomach. Fear lowered his head, still staring at Tigress. His smile broadened, putting on a voice almost as if he were reprimanding a child.

"An interesting attempt, Tigress. But, if you keep doing that, I might just get annoyed, and then I'd have to kill you."

For the next few words, his voice became horrific, a screaming cacophony that shrieked out words.

"LET GO," He let go of the cane in his right hand, and grabbed one of Tigress' wrists.

"OF ME," He let go of his pocket watch and grabbed Tigress' other wrist.

"LITTLE GIRL." Fear wrenched Tigress' hands from his body, then disappeared in a cloud of black shadow.

"What _was_ that?" Viper asked, horrified, "What the-"

"Anyway," Fear's voice interrupted Viper. He was behind us now, further away this time, leaning against one of the pillars next to the gate-doors. He continued, "I'm not here to fight you, I'm here to offer my help."

I could sense something was up, at first I thought it was Fear himself, but now I wasn't so sure if that was all there was to it. I decided to question him about this.

"Help with what, exactly?"

Po grabbed my attention, "What are you doing? Have you seen this guy?"

"Yes, far more times than you have, actually."

"We should take him!"

"If you are going to take me," Fear said, "I'd suggest doing it with at least the element of surprise."

I decided to ignore Po, and follow up on my question to Fear.

"Anyway, what do you think we need help with, and how the hell are you benefiting from it?"

"Well, first, I'll assume you don't know that Death has been trying to get in here, and so I'll start by telling you that Death is back, and he's trying to get in here."

"What, Death?" Blue said, surprised, "The Commander killed him, 2000 years or so ago. How can he come back?"

"Because, Blue," Fear explained, "He _didn't_ kill him. Killing a god is difficult, if you didn't know, and he just didn't finish the process. Nearly, but not quite. Now, Death wants to make entire worlds dead again, and he's planning on this one as a test. Now, people can't be afraid if they're dead, so, naturally, I'm not too fond of the idea."

"Why are you so interested in here, though?" Blaze asked, "It's another dimension, when else are you going to be here?"

"You think he'll stop with this one? He'll move on to Origin soon enough. Plus, I couldn't have you dying, you're my favourites, after all."

"Damn straight." said White.

"We'll accept your help." I told Fear, "But anywho, who's your favourite amongst us?"

Fear took the question in his stride, "You're all my favourites equally! Except White, don't like him."

"Hey!"

"Bye now!"

And with that, the god of fear disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I don't usually like Fear," Blaze thought aloud, "but I've got to give him credit for not liking White."

"How could he not like me?" White wondered in despair.

I answered, "You haven't got class."

"Guys!?" Mantis cried, "We've just accepted help from some guy with glowing eyes and a top hat, who calls himself Fear and just threatened to kill Tigress! What the hell kind of strategy is that!?"

"Master Mantis," I said, "welcome to the IDTF. Or, operations with it, anyway."

"Can we trust Fear?" Red asked.

"We can't afford to take the risk, I think. Death's pretty annoying." By annoying, I of course meant generally lethal, which you can kind of assume from the fact that he's called Death.

"I don't know how well you know Fear," said Tigress, "but he has evil written all over him. I'm shocked you're even considering trusting him."

"I don't like him either." Po agreed, and the rest of the Five voiced their agreements too.

Since accepting Fear's help was my idea, technically, the rest of my team were nudging me, urging me to say something.

"Look, he's not that bad. Just... Complicated."

The Five looked sceptical, with a few arising "Oh, really?"s and "Mmmhmm?"s.

"Look, he's helped us loads of times before - I'm not saying he's a saint, but he doesn't like the other evil gods. He's told me before that he's happy with the world in the state it's in now, and so are we, so... Yeah. Just try not to anger him, okay?"

Tigress mulled it over, "This is something else we will have to tell Shifu."

White almost scoffed, "Because he's _sure_ going to be happy collaborating with Sir Pumpkin Tuxedo."

"Don't insult my tuxedo."

"AAH!" Everyone jumped back at Fear, who had once more appeared behind us.

"Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you." He smirked, "I can't have you making fun of my suit, I do like to hold the reputation of "Classiest God". Besides that god of class, of course, that classy cretin."

And so, he disappeared again.

"Is that going to become a regular thing?" moaned Crane.

"I hope not," I said, "but it probably will. I wouldn't really worry about it, Fear's content enough not to really bother people, so if he does appear he'll only be wanting to talk about something."

"Because we clearly enjoy talking to him so much..." Monkey muttered.

"Come on." Tigress called, opening the doors, "Master Shifu needs to be told what's just happened."

We followed the tiger master inside, and into the training hall, where assumedly she'd, uh, assumed we'd be meeting Shifu.

"He should be here by now, it's half-twelve." Blue noted.

At that moment, Shifu burst through another set of doors, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Are you all right, Shifu? You're late." I asked him.

"I'm not late, you're late!" He snapped, "And it's _Master_ Shifu!"

Well, that was annoying.

"You don't hold any authority over me, nor any of my team. Are you sure there isn't something wrong?"

"There is something wrong." Tigress said, "Master, we've just been approached by someone outside the gates. They call themselves Fear."

"They don't just _call_ themselves Fear, they _are_ Fear." Blaze stepped in, "Look, Shifu, we've dealt with him before, we can handle this without anyone else's involvement-"

"-But Master, he was_ horrible_, like a demon-" Viper began.

"Oh, he's _waaay_ worse than a demon." White interrupted.

"No, it's not really a-"

Shifu raised a hand. "Enough! Now, if this person was just outside, I'm sure I could speak with him."

"Splendid!" Fear clapped his hands together. Despite all of our separate view points, he had still managed to appear out of nowhere. "Ah, Shifu, still haunted by your past? Good, you know, I would have used you to get here, but you know, that whole peace thing got in the way a bit. Still don't really see how you did it considering the madness and death of your son and the emotional crippling of your daughter. You caused it all, by the way, just letting you know."

It was clear enough to see on Shifu's face that Fear was opening up old wounds, some may well have been new or underlying, too. "I'm past all that." Shifu _nearly _stuttered, stricken but defiant. Unsurprisingly, Shifu's students were all looking increasingly hostile towards Fear.

"But are you, though?"

"Hey," I called, "can someone give Shifu a break and get this sadistic ass to shut up?"

Fear turned questioningly in my direction, and was caught off-guard when 01 grabbed his cane and swung it into his chin. Fear recoiled and reached for 01, but 01 grabbed his hand, threw him over his shoulder and kicked him in the back, drawing his handgun afterwards. Fear was thrown forward, but came to a halt and stood up straight. It seems I was testing his patience.

He spoke through gritted teeth. "You're lucky I'm concerned about keeping this suit clean."

"Get him out of here now." Shifu ordered. Fear wasn't having it, though.

Fear recovered from his moment of anger pretty quickly. "It's nothing personal, it's how I feed."

"I think you'll find that was everything personal."

"No, look, see it this way:" He brushed himself down, "Do you ever think of how the crops feel? The poor soya beans who's families must be traumatised? No? I didn't think you would, technically speaking, I'm actually more considerate than you in that sense."

"Are you comparing me to a soya bean?"

"And yes, I suppose I should probably be making a better effort to get on your side, but give me a little credit: I am caring more for you than you care for soya beans."

It took a while before Shifu simply sighed and rested his brow in a hand. "...He just compared me... To a soya bean..."

"You see? Even now."

"Get him out of here."

White saw his opportunity, "Don't be racist to the soya beans, Shifu, stop being racist!"

"Get him out!"

"Racist..."

"Very well, I can see I'm no longer wanted here." Fear tilted his top hat, "Good day."

And so, he left again in an almost clichéd puff of smoke.

There was silence for a long time. No-one spoke, a few people shifted nervously and either looked at the floor or exchanged a nervous glance with someone else. Through it all, Shifu stared at the ground.

After a while his head tilted upwards, and he spoke.

"Right. Let us return to training." He turned and began walking, but I stopped him shortly.

"Look, Shifu, I'm sorry about Fear,"

He made a "Hmmm"ing sound, the meaning of which I couldn't tell.

"He isn't on his best behaviour right now, and we will need his help-"

"We'll find a way around it, operate without his help."

"No, Shifu, you don't understand what you're dealing with here-"

"I said, we will operate without his help."

"But we need it, Shifu, can you not just make one compromise?"

"I have made enough compromises already."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"That doesn't matter! I will not work with that- that monstrosity!"

"Oh, right, so it's a personal thing, nice job taking one for the team."

"I won't stand for this! Didn't you see what he was doing-?"

"Ignore it, Shifu, move on."

"How dare you!? If you had lost what I have, known the pain I've felt-"

"NO! Don't you DARE even try, I've lived millions of years with the regret, the grief from fallen comrades- friends- family, who fought and died beside me, and I had to let it all go in an instant for the sake of a few people. And now, you can't let go of a few little issues from years past, for the sake of an _entire dimension_? You're pathetic."

I turned and left immediately afterwards, thinking to myself as I walked off in no particular direction, pondering. I wasn't proud of that exchange, although I wasn't really ashamed either. I'd just had it with Shifu at that point, gods forbid if I'd have pulled a revolver on him.

Frankly I would've expected Shifu to handle Fear a lot better than he had, and Fear himself wasn't usually that bad. Something else was still up, definitely, and it was happening just behind our backs. Or right under our noses. Well, the ULFs' noses, SOKs don't have noses...

At this point, still, none of my team seemed to have discovered the identity of the "someone" that Shifu had been conversing with, and it seemed to me as though none of the Five nor Po knew about it either. Whoever they were, I was pretty much certain that they were the cause of all these goings on behind our backs, and probably the reason why Shifu was so agitated.

That begged another question, though: Why the hell was I agitated? There was no explanation as far as I could see, this was all getting quite strange. Quite strange indeed.

Back at the Jade Palace, things had gone a bit badly since I had left. After a short - and frankly a bit half-hearted - argument over the ULF - SOK divide, everyone decided that everyone had acting a bit out of hand. Once rationality was at the forefront of everyone's minds, they started to think about things that would serve some purpose. One issue was rather quickly resolved when Blaze supplied that I'd probably be back in a few hours, and she was right, of course. The Five and Po returned to their quarters and my team returned to theirs; Shifu had dismissed everyone else to give himself some time and space to think.

My team got on with setting up the armoury and various methods of demon surveillance in the surrounding area, with help from Blue's miscellaneous tech-y equipment and 01's MUTBPU.

The MUTBPU, commonly called "Mutbeepoo" or "Magic Box", stands for Multiple Use Tactical Back-Pack Unit. You can use it to get weapons, view headcams, perform scans - I even got an entire shed out of it one time. Can't for the life of me remember why I needed a shed, though.

But anyway, yeah, my team did that. I don't know what the Masters did in that time, but I was just wandering and wondering. Demons were surprisingly scarce, by which I mean there didn't seem to be any. Frankly, it would have been a demon's best shot at me, considering I was alone in reasonably unfamiliar surroundings. Still, can't say I was surprised. Don't go to a demon if you're looking for advanced strategic and tactical intelligence.

I got contacted about twice by my team. They weren't particularly worried about my safety - they had no reason to be - but both times I assured them I was fine. Sometimes, when things are hectic, you need a good hour or two to just zone out and think, kind of like meditation. Well, I say one or two hours, in my case it was more like five or six. Things had been really hectic lately. I'd been gone for a very long time.

I eventually decided to turn back. I hadn't necessarily been going in the same direction all the time, so I wasn't incredibly far from the Jade Palace, and it didn't take me long to get back there. There was a kind of winding mountain path that served as an alternative to the gods-forsaken stairs, which I gladly took advantage of.

I slowed to a leisurely walking pace. I didn't feel particularly like getting back quite so soon; I decided I'd just roam the palace grounds for a while before returning to the Masters and my comrades.

I was nearing a cliff of sorts when Fear materialised beside me, walking to match my pace, his cane gently tapping the earth in a steady rhythm.

"Good evening, 02." He greeted me.

"Good? Hardly. I don't know if you know what happened after you left, but things didn't exactly settle down. Everyone was pretty pissed off, actually, including me."

"Yes, I was... Aware of that. I was acting a little harshly and... I apologise."

"Fear apologising? This just keeps getting weirder."

"Hmm, yes, there does appear to be something odd going on, doesn't there? You've noticed it too?"

"I have. So it isn't you, then."

"No, it isn't. But whatever it is, it does seem to be affecting me, and that I don't like, for all our sakes. I'll be looking into it - I'll get back to you if I find anything interesting. Pleasant travels." Fear clicked his fingers and disappeared again.

Yep, you read it right. An apology and help from Fear. I probably wouldn't be any more surprised to find that I'd actually been a moose for the past three years.

With Fear gone, I passed a peach tree and a sapling and took a seat by the cliff. I wondered if Shifu would be mad at me when I got back, or if he would have come to his senses as I had. That and I hadn't got any of the Masters' viewpoints on this, they could well be angry at me too, Tigress, probably. I looked up at the evening sky, dark blue beginning to conquer the reds and oranges slowly ebbing away on the horizon.

I flinched slightly, but didn't turn as a voice came from behind me.

"02? What are you doing here?"


End file.
